The plant is silhouetted by the early morning light at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex on Oct. 26, 2023, in Toledo, Ohio. | Kurt Steiss/The Blade via AP
TOLEDO—Following a disturbing trend of recent auto worker layoffs, auto giant Stellantis notified 1,100 Toledo workers, members of UAW Local 12, that they will be indefinitely laid off. These layoffs at the Toledo Assembly Plant, where they produce the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Wrangler 4xe, and Gladiator, are coming after cutting jobs at Warren Truck in southeast Michigan, where they build the Tradesman pickup truck.
Additionally, workers at the Freud Street parts sequencing facility in Detroit, Indiana Transmission, and Detroit Assembly Complex-Mack are also facing indefinite layoffs. Stellantis is also trying to move the Dodge Durango out of the U.S. to a plant in Windsor, Ontario. The union has had enough with the broken promises, they said, and are ready to engage in strike activity to hold the company accountable to its end of the bargain.
“These indefinite layoffs are unacceptable, and we will do everything in our power to fight them where they violate our contract. We are also taking action to make sure jobs stop leaving the country under broken federal trade agreements,” the union said.
Calling them “productivity cuts”
What are being called “productivity” cuts by Stellantis, despite giving out million dollar bonuses and a 56% pay increase to CEO Carlos Tavares, known now as “Shitcan Carlos” by the workers, are happening at nearly every plant. Stellantis is still a profitable company, outperforming both Ford and GM in global sales, revenue, profit, and margins in the first half of this year, the union said.
During last year’s national rolling Stand Up strike against the Big 3, UAW members at Stellantis won $19 billion in product and investment commitments from the company. The workers also won the right to strike to enforce the contract.
The Auto Workers have been holding rallies across the country to gear up for strike authorization votes against Stellantis for reneging on the contractual agreements that the union won in the Stand-Up strike, including the reopening of the Belvidere, Illinois Assembly plant, which is a sore spot for the workers.
The union blames Stellantis for failing to “keep its promise” as well as bad trade deals, such as NAFTA and the recent USMCA, which have seen manufacturing jobs leave the U.S. to lower-wage countries in order for U.S. corporations to keep increasing maximum profits.
Following the results of the 2024 election, the union plans to hold the incoming Trump Administration accountable for these so-called “free trade deals” – which Stellantis is now using to kill union jobs. “The fight to fix our broken trade laws like the USMCA continues,” union president Shawn Fain said in a statement.
“The fight for good union jobs and U.S. leadership in the emerging battery industry continues. The fight for a secure retirement for everyone in this country continues. The fight for a living wage, affordable health care, and time for our families continues.”
Several locals have held strike authorization votes against Stellantis in recent months. UAW Local 1166 in Kokomo, Indiana, Local 1268 in Belvidere, Illinois, Local 186 in Denver, Colorado, and Local 230 in Los Angeles, California have all held votes. The majority of members in each local voted in favor of authorizing a strike, with Belvidere seeing over 90% of members vote yes. In Kokomo, 61% of members voted to authorize a strike, which was still a clear majority but fell short of the two-thirds threshold mandated in the UAW Constitution.
In addition to preparing for a national strike against the company, the UAW said there is hope for optimism. Just recently, Stellantis told investors that “inventory reduction in the United States is running at a faster rate than expected” and that they had reached a reduction of 100,000 vehicles ahead of their November deadline.
“Inventory going down means they will need you to build cars in 2025,” Kevin Gotkinsky, the director of the UAW Stellantis Department said to the union members. “That means we will have more leverage to enforce our contract.”
The UAW indicated that to enhance the battle against Stellantis, they can reintroduce withdrawn grievances. They also expressed having many pending grievances within the system already. Anticipating more strike authorization votes in early 2025, they reassured workers that there will be no strike during the holidays.
“The commitments we won in our contract aren’t goals, they’re guarantees,” Fain said. “The company claims they don’t have the money to make these investments. But since the year began, they’ve dumped more than $3 billion into stock buybacks. They have the money to Keep The Promise.”
“A strike will cripple this company. If we have to strike it’s because of Stellantis not honoring their commitment…Our union is united and they can’t pick us off plant by plant.”
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